1876

1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1876

January–March

• February 2 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois; it replaced the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. Morgan Bulkeley of the Hartford Dark Blues is selected as the league's first President.
• February 22 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
• February 24 – Premiere of first stage production of the verse-play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, in Oslo (then called Christiania), Norway
• February 27 -The Third Carlist War (Spain):The Carlist forces did not succeed, and the promises were never fulfilled. The Carlist pretender (Carlos María de Borbón y Austria-Este-"duque de Madrid" y "conde de la Alcarria") AKA:Carlos VII went into exile in France bringing the conflict to an end after four years of war.
• Spring – Vast numbers of Indians move north to an encampment of the Sioux chief Sitting Bull in the region of the Little Bighorn River, creating the last great gathering of native peoples on the Great Plains.
• March 7 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone (patent #174,466).
• March 10 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.."

April–June

• April 16 – The Bulgarian April uprising occurs.
• May 1
  • Queen Victoria takes the title Empress of India.
  • The Settle-Carlisle Railway in England is opened to passenger traffic.
• May 10 – The Centennial Exposition begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• May 11 – May 12 – Berlin Memorandum: Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary propose an armistice between Turkey and its insurgents.
• May 16 – British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejects the Berlin Memorandum.
• May 18 – Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, Kansas, serving under Marshal Larry Deger.
• June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
• June 17 – Indian Wars – Battle of the Rosebud: 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
• June 24 First published review of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, in a British magazine; the book's first edition had appeared earlier in June in England. (The book was published in the U.S. in December 1876.)
• June 25 – Indian Wars – Battle of the Little Bighorn: 300 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer are wiped out by 5,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

July–September

Punch cartoon from June 17. Russia preparing to let slip the "Dogs of War," its imminent engagement in the growing Balkan conflict between Slavic states and Turkey, while policeman John Bull (Britain) warns Russia to take care. The Slavic states of Serbia and Montenegro would declare war on Turkey two weeks later.

• July 1 – Serbia declares war on Turkey.
• July 2 – Montenegro declares war on Turkey.
• July 4 – The United States celebrates its centennial.
• July 8 – Reichstadt Agreement: Russia and Austria-Hungary agree on partitioning the Balkan peninsula.
• July 13 – The prosecution of Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman, for using ritualist practices begins.
• August 1 – Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
• August 8 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
• August 13 – Richard Wagner inaugurates Bayreuth Festival
• August 31 – Murat V, sultan of the Ottoman Empire is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid II.
• September 5 – Gladstone publishes his Bulgarian Horrors pamphlet.
• September 7 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are surrounded by an angry mob and are nearly wiped out.
• September 12 – King Leopold II of Belgium hosts the Brussels Geographic Conference on the subject of colonizing and exploring central Africa. By the event's conclusion a new international body named the International African Association is established.

October–December

• October 4 – Texas A&M University opens for classes.
• October 31 – A catastrophic cyclone strikes the east coast of India, killing 200,000.
• November 2 – A giant squid, 6.1 meters long, washes ashore at Thimble Tickle Bay in Newfoundland.
• November 4 – The long-awaited First Symphony of Johannes Brahms is premiered at Karlsruhe under the baton of Otto Dessoff.
• November 7 – U.S. presidential election, 1876: After long and heated disputes, Rutherford Birchard Hayes is eventually declared the winner over Samuel Jones Tilden. A failed grave robbery of the Lincoln Tomb took place on the same night.
• November 10 – The Centennial Exposition ends in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• November 23 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
• November 25 – Indian Wars: In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald S. Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River (the soldiers destroy all of the villagers' winter food and clothing, and then slash their ponies' throats).
• November 29 – Porfirio Díaz becomes President of Mexico.
• December 5 – The Brooklyn Theater Fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300.
• December 6 – The first cremation in the United States takes place in a crematory built by Francis Julius LeMoyne.
• December 29 – The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster occurs, leaving 92 dead.

Ongoing events

• 1876–1879 – Great North China Famine: ten million die.
• 1876–1878 – Famine and cholera in India: six million die.

Undated

• Dewey Decimal Classification invented by Melvil Dewey
• Charles Wells opens his brewery based in Bedford, England.
• Lyford House, by Richardson Bay, Tiburon, California is constructed.
• Construction of Spandau Prison is completed.
• The four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine is invented by Nikolaus Otto.
• Samurai are banned from carrying swords in Japan.
• The samurai's stipends are replaced by one-time grants of income bearings bonds.
• Japan brings a fleet to Inchon, the port of Seoul. The Japanese force the Korean government to sign an unequal treaty, open 3 ports to Japanese trade and cease considering itself a tributary of China. On China's urging Korea also signs treaties with the European powers in effort to counterbalance Japan.
• The Harvard Lampoon is founded.
• The Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland is founded.
• Lars Magnus Ericsson and Carl Johan Andersson start a small mechanical workshop in Stockholm, Sweden, dealing with telegraphy equipment, which grows into the worldwide company Ericsson.
• Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost.
• Adolphus Busch's brewery, Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri, first markets Budweiser, a pale lager, as a nationally sold beer.
• Tanzimat ends in the Ottoman Empire.
• The Clontarf Cricket Club is established. The 2008 2nd XI calls their assault on all Senior II competitions "Operation 1876" in honour of this fantastic year.

Births

January–June

• January 5 – Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1967)
• January 12
  • Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (d. 1948)
  • Jack London, American author (d. 1916)
• January 20 – Józef Hofmann, Polish pianist (d. 1967)
• January 23 – Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
• January 29 – Havergal Brian, British composer (d. 1972)
• February 12 – Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama (d. 1933)
• February 16
  • Mack Swain, American actor (d. 1935)
  • G.M. Trevelyan, British historian (d. 1962)
• February 19 – Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor (d. 1957)
• March 1 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (d. 1942)
• March 2 – Pope Pius XII (d. 1958)
• March 4
  • Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet (d. 1947)
  • Theodore Hardeen, magician and stunt performer, founder of the Magician's Guild (d. 1945)
• March 11 – Carl Ruggles, American composer (d. 1971)
• March 21 – John Tewksbury, American athlete (d. 1968)
• March 26 – Prince William of Wied, sovereign Prince of Albania (d. 1945)
• March 31 – Borisav "Bora" Stanković, Serbian writer (d. 1927)
• April 3 – Margaret Anglin, Canadian stage actress (d. 1958)
• April 4 – Maurice de Vlaminck, French painter and poet (d. 1958)
• April 11 – Paul Henry, Irish artist (d. 1958)
• April 22 – Robert Bárány, Hungarian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1936)
• May 10 – Ivan Cankar, Slovenian writer (d. 1918)
• May 18 – Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1931)
• May 27 – Sir William Stanier, English steam locomotive engineer (London, Midland and Scottish Railway) (d. 1965)
• June 5
  • Tony Jackson, American jazz musician (d. 1920)
  • Isaac Heinemann, German-born Israeli scholar and professor of classical literature (d. 1957)
• June 13 – William Sealy Gosset, English chemist (d. 1937)
• June 19 – Sir Nigel Gresley, English steam locomotive engineer (Flying Scotsman & Mallard) (d. 1941)

July–December

• July 2 – Wilhelm Cuno, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1933)
• July 12 – Max Jacob, French poet (d. 1944)
• July 16 – Alfred Stock, German chemist (d. 1946)
• July 19 – Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1972)
• August 7 – Mata Hari, exotic dancer and spy (d. 1917)
• August 25 – Eglantyne Jebb, co-founder of the Save the Children Fund and champion of children's human rights (d. 1928)
• September 1 – Harriet Shaw Weaver, English political activist (d. 1961)
• September 6 – John James Richard Macleod, Scottish-born physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
• September 13 – Sherwood Anderson, American writer (d. 1941
• September 15 – Bruno Walter, German conductor (d. 1962)
• September 16 – Marvin Hart, American boxer (d. 1931)
• September 18 – James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1953)
• September 23 – Moshe Zvi Segal, Israeli linguist and Talmudic scholar, and Israel Prize recipient (d. 1968)
• September 26
  • Syed Ghulam Bhik Nairang, a poet and a prominent Indian/Pakistani Muslim leader (d. 1952)
  • Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (d. 1957)
• October 13 – Rube Waddell, baseball player (d. 1914)
• November 2 – William Haywood, British architect (d. 1957)
• November 3 – Rupert D'Oyly Carte, English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario (d. 1948)
• November 7
  • Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (d. 1958)
  • Culbert Olson, Governor of California (d. 1962)
• November 17 – August Sander, German photographer (d. 1964)
• November 23 – Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer (d. 1946)
• November 24 – Walter Burley Griffin, American architect (d. 1937)
• December 9 – Berton Churchill, Canadian actor (d. 1940)
• December 12 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (d. 1928)
• December 21 – Jack Lang, Australian politician (d. 1975)
• December 25
  • Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first governer general and founder of Pakistan (d. 1948)
  • Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
• December 29 – Pau Casals, Catalan cellist (d. 1973)
• date unknown
  • Alfred S. Alschuler, American architect (d. 1940)
  • Anton Boisen, founder of the Clinical Pastoral Education movement (d. 1965)

Deaths

January–June

• January 10 – Gordon Granger, American General (b. 1822)
• February 18 – Charlotte Cushman, American actress (b. 1816)
• April 9 – Charles Goodyear, American politician (b. 1804)
• May 7 – William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and author (b. 1795)
• May 8 – Truganini, the last Tasmanian Aboriginal (b. c. 1812)
• May 24 – Henry Kingsley, English novelist (b. 1830)
• May 26 – František Palacký, Czech historian and politician (b. 1798)
• June 4 – Abdülâziz, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1830)
• June 6 – Auguste Casimir-Perier, French diplomat (b. 1811)
• June 7 – Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway (b. 1807)
• June 21 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico (b. 1794)
• June 25 – George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Army officer (in battle) (b. 1839)

July–December

• July 1 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian revolutionary and anarchist (b. 1814)
• August 2 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter and entertainer (b. 1837)
• September 27 – Braxton Bragg, Confederate Civil War general (b. 1817)
• October 1 – James Lick, American land baron (b. 1796)
• November 18 – Narcisse Virgilio Díaz, painter (b. 1807)
• December 29 – Titus Salt, British businessman and philanthropist (b. 1803)
• December 31 – Catherine Labouré, French visionary and Saint (b. 1806)

Reference

• Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia ...for 1876 (1885) online edition, comprehensive world coverage